Eastern: Mianus River Gorge Preserve

Mianus River Gorge Preserve
© Hardie Truesdale

Why You Should Visit
The wild Mianus River rushes through a steep gorge on its way to Long Island Sound. On its cool, moist banks, a magnificent cathedral of 350-year-old hemlocks stand more than 100 feet tall, and beyond the river, lush fern gullies surround the lovely Havemeyer Falls. At the Hobby Hill Quarry in the middle of the preserve, 18th century mining left a gorgeous mosaic of mica, feldspar and quartz.

Location
Bedford, Westchester County, New York

Size
738 acres: The Nature Conservancy holds title to 555 acres, while the remaining 183 acres is owned by the Mianus River Gorge Preserve Inc., a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation that now manages the entire preserve.

How to Prepare for Your Visit
Please see our Visitation Guidelines.

What to Expect
This preserve is open from April to November from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The preserve is closed December through March. No dogs or mountain bikes, please. Please do not disturb or collect any minerals—leave them for others to enjoy.

Trails
From the entrance kiosk, a pair of color-coded trails, complete with distance markers and directional arrows, leads you along the edge of the gorge to numerous landmarks.

Directions

Take I-684 to exit 4.
Exit east on Rt. 172 to Bedford Village.
Proceed 0.8 miles from the triangular green.
Turn right at the traffic light onto Long Ridge (Stamford) Road.
Travel for 0.5 miles and turn right onto Miller's Mill Road. Turn left on Mianus Road.
The preserve entrance is 0.6 miles on the left.

What to See: Plants
The cool, moist microclimate of the gorge provides the ideal environment for the growth of a hardwood forest community of eastern hemlock, American beech and oak that is usually found in areas farther north, while the highland areas contain more oak. Some areas, recently cleared by people or by fire, display various stages of forest succession, with juniper, gray birch, dogwood, highbush blueberry and locust. More than 30 species of ferns have been identified at Mianus, including hay-scented, New York and bladder ferns.

What to See: Animals

Bobcats
long tailed weasels
wood turtles
eastern gray treefrogs
northern dusky salamanders
white-tailed deer
eastern turkeys

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
Purchased in 1955, this site is The Nature Conservancy’s first land preservation project. In 1964, the federal government designated the Mianus River Gorge as the nation’s first registered Natural History Landmark because of its old-growth hemlock hardwood forest and rushing river. It is now managed by the Mianus River Gorge Preserve, Inc., a nonprofit land trust, which also owns 183 acres of the preserve.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
The Mianus River Gorge Preserve, Inc. manages the preserve and has several ongoing projects. They study the biological control of the woolly adelgid, an invasive insect that is preying on the preserve’s hemlocks; the control of invasive species of plants and animals; the browsing ecology of white-tailed deer; the potential for wildflower restoration; and eastern bluebird mortality. They are maintaining an ongoing inventory of plants and animals, and protecting land throughout the watershed and adjacent to the preserve through land acquisition, conservation easements and collaborations with local governments.